Case Studies - Inclusion in Enrichment Activities

‘Our school runs a number of successful enrichment activities that the kids say they enjoy - like after-school engineering clubs, meet a scientist talks, career promotion evenings. I have noticed that the activities are very stereotypical in participation on gender basis - so boys take part in engineering club but few girls do - and our Muslim children do not take part in any after school activity. When I raised this with the careers coordinator, I was told that anyone was welcome to take part. What can I do to encourage my colleagues and, possibly more importantly, the management team to question things and look at what can be done to be more inclusive?’

Newly Qualified D&T Teacher

Advice

It may be that a fresh approach to the way these activities are promoted in school will help. For example, the 'Engineering Islam' event organised by the London Engineering Project was publicised using a poster which included images of a mosque, gave the contact name of a female whose name is Muslim and used very clear messages to ensure that girls and boys knew that they were welcome to attend.

The timing of the clubs and activities may be important. Some individuals may have to get transport home at certain times (for example some pupils with special educational needs have taxis booked and some individuals have religious observances at particular times of the day). Individuals from rural areas may also find it difficult to organise transport outside of school hours.

Once you start the clubs and activities, it is worth ensuring that the materials are interesting for different groups. The 'Girls In the Physics Classroom' research by the Institute of Physics provided some useful insights into the way that girls prefer to contextualise their learning and some of the lessons learned from a range of projects has been included in our ''Table for Good Practice' which you will find in the Resource section of the toolkit.

The use of role models and case studies has been shown to be a powerful tool when trying to challenge stereotypes. The following websites have a variety of resources and you may wish to look at sections other than those highlighted. See also Top Tips page for general information on making sure all activities and resources are inclusive.